G64: Providing a Table of Contents

Applicability

Description

This is one of a series of techniques for locating content that are sufficient for addressing Success Criterion 2.4.5.
A table of contents provides links to sections and subsections of the same document. The information in the document is usually organized hierarchically, and is intended to be read sequentially. Just as there could be many books in a library, each with its own table of contents, a Web site may contain many documents, each with its own table of contents.

The table of contents serves two purposes:

It gives users an overview of the document's contents and organization.

It allows readers to go directly to a specific section of an on-line document.

The table of contents typically includes only major sections of the document, though in some cases an expanded table of contents that provides a more detailed view of a complex document may be desirable.

The sections of the document could be located on the same Web page or divided into multiple Web pages. A table of contents is particularly useful when a document is divided into multiple Web pages.

There is a distinction between a table of contents and other Navigational elements such as a Navigation Bar or Site Map. A table of contents provides links to sections of the same document. Those sections could be located on the same Web page or spread across multiple Web pages. But together, they make a complete idea. To better understand this, consider a hard copy book which has sections. Each section belongs to the book. There could be many books in a library. In this example, the "library" is the entire Web site.

Examples

Example 1

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 contains a table of contents that is a hierarchical list of links to the sections and subsections of the document. The hierarchy of the table of contents reflects the organization of the sections, and each item in the table of contents is a link that takes the user directly to that section.